


Happy New Year

by archaeologist_d



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, M/M, New Year's Eve
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-01
Updated: 2016-02-01
Packaged: 2018-05-17 12:59:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5870590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/archaeologist_d/pseuds/archaeologist_d
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was New Year's Eve and Arthur still had not returned.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Happy New Year

Merlin watched as kisses and drinks and paper hats were exchanged, drunk, tossed into the air.

He never truly participated in the New Year's Eve parties. After all, it was just a day in the thousands of days he'd seen, waiting, ever waiting for the man he'd loved to return. While everyone around him celebrated, laughing, shouting, hugging, jumping with excitement at the artificial tick of a clock, at the sounds/lights/pulse of bright fireworks overhead, they seemed as ghosts to him, flowing past without touching. Ephemeral, insubstantial, inconsequential.

His was a life that had no place in the modern world. While others lived and died, melting back into the earth, he couldn't seem to find a way to connect. Or perhaps he was the ephemeral one, as insubstantial as mist, and they could not see him, not as he really was.

But it didn't matter. Until Arthur returned, he was nothing to them, just a phantom drifting in and out of their lives.

But once, just once, he'd like to wish someone, anyone, a Happy New Year.

**Author's Note:**

> Author's Notes: Really, do you expect anything else from me?   
> Disclaimer: I do not own the BBC version of Merlin; BBC and Shine do. I am very respectfully borrowing them with no intent to profit. No money has changed hands. No copyright infringement is intended.


End file.
